


Trick or Treat

by hexmaniacchoco



Series: April Fool's! I still haven't come up with a title yet [6]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: ...sort of, Also kind of, Body Horror, Case Fic, Halloween, Haunted Houses, Horror, M/M, Not Beta Read, Team Free Will, Thunderstorms, kind of, not sure how much that tag counts here but it probably does to some extent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 20:11:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12589656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hexmaniacchoco/pseuds/hexmaniacchoco
Summary: While on their way back to the bunker, Dean thinks he sees something in the window of an abandoned looking house they happened to drive past in the middle of nowhere. Sam and Cas don't see it, but they turn around and decide to investigate anyway.





	Trick or Treat

The dusty air of the house they were currently investigating mad Sam sneeze for the third time in a row. The sound of it seemed as loud as a gunshot in the otherwise silent place, but also as if it were absorbed into the walls at the same time. All the same, Dean elbowed him in the side.  
  
“Way to let everything in a mile radius know we’re here, Sam.”  
  
Dean kept his voice low. It was the first time Sam had seen him this on edge without any noticeably good reason since he’d caught the ghost sickness way back when. For that matter, it was the first time Sam himself had felt this on edge without any noticeably good reason since… well, he didn’t want to think about that again… Not right now. Still, he had to defend himself.  
  
“Shut up, Dean.”  
  
He ignored his brother’s eye roll and kept moving gingerly forward through the hall, flashlight in hand and at the ready in case something needed to be illuminated quickly.  He’d rather have a gun, but Cas confiscated those from both of them after Sam startled at the sound of something falling loudly off a nearby bookshelf and accidentally shot him. The cause turned out to be a squirrel, which then chattered angrily at them before bolting out the shattered front window and disappearing into the night.  
  
“Neither of you are fit to be wielding these right now,” Cas had told them after Dean protested his inclusion in the new “no weapons” rule.  
  
Dean tried insisting that if something happened that Cas could just heal them, but Cas was unbudgeable. Sam would be mildly surprised to learn, much later, after they’d survived the horrors to come that night, after a quick search on his phone, that “unbudgeable” was a real word.  
  
“Yeah, well, my vote was to keep driving, but no--you had to insist you saw the silhouette of some cliched axe-wielding murderer about to strike in one of the windows and that we should stop and check it out.” Sam complained. It was true. No one else saw it, but still Dean made a hard U-turn and turned onto the poorly lit dirt road that stretched through uncomfortably tall grasses and led to a house sitting in the middle of nowhere. A house that looked long abandoned. When they pulled up to it, they weren’t even sure it was in a condition they could investigate, with its sagging roof and walls looking to be on the verge of collapse.  
  
“I know what I saw, Sam,” Dean whispered back.  
  
“You know, what if it was just a death echo or something?” Sam suggested. Though to give Dean credit, if there really was nothing but a death echo here, then there shouldn’t be any reason for the paranoia apparently unsettling the both of them. Cas didn’t seem affected, but he had a strange look of confusion on his face the whole time. They hadn’t gotten around to asking about it yet.  
  
“I guess… if it was the echo of some cliched axe-wielding murderer who got himself axed,” Dean considered, smirking slightly in amusement at his own joke.  
  
“I’m glad the both of you have calmed down, but it may not be a good time to relax,” Cas told them as they rounded a corner into another dilapidated room. “There’s something here… I just... can’t seem to put my finger on what.”  
  
Dean gave Sam a smug look. “See? Not a hallucination.”  
  
Sam put a hand up. “Alright, fine. You were right. But so far, we haven’t found anything. All we have is…”  
  
“A case of the heebie-jeebies,” Dean finished for him. There was a flash of light and a loud clap of thunder, and suddenly rain was pounding on the roof. The wind howled and a  cold breeze blew in through a hole in a nearby window.  
  
Sam moved closer towards Cas, bumping into Dean who was practically wrapped around Cas’ arm. Despite the irritated look on Cas’ face, Sam held into his shoulder. “Sorry,” he mumbled, then turning a little more toward Cas asked, “Hey--why are we the only ones affected, anyway? Is it because we’re human?”  
  
“Possibly,” Cas sighed. Sam cleared his throat and stepped away. They waited for Dean to follow suit, and while it took an extra few seconds, he eventually did with a sheepish look on his face.  
  
“Uh, sorry,” he said quickly, before marching ahead as if to leave all the awkwardness behind them. “But a dark, stormy, Halloween night at a probably haunted house? Guess the whole thing’s a cliche now…”  
  
Sam chuckled at that. “Guess so,” he agreed.  
  
A small smile appeared on Cas’ face. He was about to say something when a loud scream from the other side of the house interrupted him. The three of them bolted toward the sound, finding themselves standing in front of chipped and peeling door that was partially opened onto a staircase descending into pitch darkness.  
  
Dean looked at Sam and Cas and gulped. “Any of you ever read ‘Stay Out Of The Basement’?” he laughed nervously. The higher pitch of scared voice was almost enough to chase the fear out of Sam and he fought the urge to make fun of Dean for it. Someone could need help, and beside that, the faster they solved this impromptu case the faster they could leave and get back to the safety of the bunker.

Sam carefully opened the door, wincing as its creaking cut sharply through the air around them. He took half a step toward the stairs and then hesitated. He looked at Cas and his brother. Dean’s eyes were wide as he peered down the staircase, and he pressed his side against Cas’. Sam noticed Dean was holding Cas’ hand tightly in his own, and made note to poke fun at him later for it once they were safe at home. Instead, Sam nodded at them, and continued down the staircase.  
  
Every step creaked and groaned under their weight, and for the first time that night Sam thought he had a legitimate fear--that the stairs would give out underneath them and they’d fall into the darkness below with no way back up. He was filled with a short-lived relief once they reached the bottom. He shined his flashlight around the room. The walls were cracked in many places, and dark liquid dripped down the sides. He couldn’t tell in the dim light if it was ectoplasm or blood or rain red with rust.  
  
The light revealed a few empty beer bottles on the hard stone floor along the wall, along with a few burnt out cigarettes. Sam was about the keep the light moving along the rest of the room when something glimmering caught his eye. He walked over to it and bent down to examine it.  
  
“...What’d you find?” Dean asked warily, still glued to Cas’ side.  
  
Sam held up the fun-sized piece of Twix candy, still in its wrapper. “This,” he said through his thinned lips.  
  
Cas took the candy from his hand and looked at it intently. “You think…”  
  
“I don’t know,” Sam interrupted, “But it’d make sense. This place came out of nowhere, we’ve never heard any stories about it, and it’s Halloween night.”  
  
“It could be a once-a-year type of thing,” Dean shrugged. “Maybe this one ain’t dangerous or something. Just scares the crap out of people who wander in, and the candy could have been from whoever left those beer bottles here.”  
  
Sam couldn’t think of an argument, so he took the candy back and held onto it. He sighed. “Yeah, I guess. But I’m just saying--”  
  
A loud banging noise came from the other side of the room, cutting him off and making him jump. Sam forced his legs to move toward the noise, and he motioned for Dean and Cas to follow. Very slowly, they made their way across the room. The banging continued the entire time, and once they reached the other  wall, they saw a small doorway shaking with each noise as if someone were beating against it.  
  
That was about as far as Sam could make himself go, so Cas stepped forward and cautiously reached out to take the handle. He opened it just as carefully, but the care was in vain as the moment there was enough of a space, a desiccated corpse fell out. Sam jumped back and Dean squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face in Cas’ neck. Cas opened the door the rest of the way to reveal the small storage space the body had been crammed into.  
  
Sam took a deep breath and shined the light on the body. The wrinkled skin hung off its bones, and its mouth was open as if it were screaming, the dried skin around it peeled back to bare its teeth. He shined a light into the storage space, and it gleamed dully off the edge of a rusted axe. “This must be our guy,” he said.  
  
“Then let’s salt it and burn it and get the hell out of here,” Dean replied. He pulled a can of salt out of his pocket and moved next to the body to pour the salt over it.  
  
Sam followed that up with a few squirts of lighter fluid. Once they finished, they tucked the salt and lighter fluid away and Dean pulled out a lighter. Sam and Cas waited, but he didn’t spark a flame. Instead, Dean’s eyes widened and he slowly looked down at his leg. Sam and Cas looked as well, and Sam felt a little dizzy at the sight of a bony hand gripping his brother’s leg. The corpse lifted itself, shaking with the effort, until it was sitting up. The three of them could only watch as it turned its rotting head toward them, and in a dusty voice cackled “Trick or treat!”  
  
Sam’s heart was pounding and his palms were clammy around his flashlight, still highlighting the terror before them. They’d seen worse for sure, but for some reason they’d been on edge the whole night and now it culminated into an almost paralyzing fear. Without thinking of why, Sam threw the Twix candy at the body and it bounced off the head and landed a foot away along the wall. The corpse crumbled to the ground at their feet, and Sam looked at Dean just in time to see his brother faint. Thankfully Cas caught him, and holding him in one arm, took the lighter from Dean with his free hand and flipped it open. He got the flame going and dropped it onto the body. The fire roared up, and Sam considered the job done.  
  
“Alright, let’s go,” he told Cas. Cas nodded and scooped up Dean, carrying him up the stairs behind Sam. Sam thought for sure burning the bones would make the anxious feeling go away, but it had only made it worse. He felt almost as if they were being chased as they hurried through the halls and back out the front door. His hands shook as he dug around Dean’s pocket to get the Impala’s keys out and he nearly dropped them as the pouring rain soaked him and made the keys slippery, and it wasn’t until they were in the car and driving away that he finally calmed down. He looked into the rearview mirror. They’d been in a hurry to leave, so Cas had Dean in the backseat with him, still unconscious and leaning on his shoulder.  
  
“Any idea what that was all about?” Sam asked.  
  
Cas drew his eyes together as he thought about it. “No,” he replied after a moment. “I hadn’t been able to determine what it was that I sensed in that placed...but whatever it was must have been the cause of fear in the both of you. We should visit again in the daylight tomorrow, and see what else we can find.”  
  
Sam agreed. He knew he’d dread the idea if he’d still been in that house, but now that they were away from it, it was a perfectly fine idea that was no different from any other case they’ve been on. He pulled into the lot of a motel, and they checked in for the night, with the plans of continuing their search of the house in the morning.

* * *

  
They arrived the next day only to find the house gone. It hadn’t burnt down, it was just...gone. Or if it had, the fire had left not even ash behind it. Sam, Dean, and Cas stood puzzled at the side of the car.  
  
“Well, do you feel anything?” Dean asked Cas.  
  
“No…” Cas answered, clearly perturbed.  
  
“And we’re sure this is the right place,” Sam said more as a statement than a question. Dean and Cas simply nodded in reply as they looked at where the house had stood. Sam put his hands into his pockets. Remembering the events and feelings of the night before, he figured they were done there. “Maybe it really was just a once-a-year thing, like you said, Dean,” he suggested.  
  
“Yeah...maybe…” Dean answered. He frowned before turning back to the Impala.  
  
“Home?” Sam asked, his voice hopeful.  
  
“Home,” Dean answered. They climbed into the car and drove off.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a short and dumb story I wrote for fun in roughly a few hours' time on Halloween night. :P It's not terribly good, but it was fun, and that's what's important. Hope you guys enjoy!


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